CYAP is hiring a Political Education Organizer!

The Carolina Youth Action Project is seeking a Political Education Organizer to support the political development of our youth leaders. The Political Education Organizer will serve as a member of a collective of core organizers (Core Team) who ground and guide CYAP’s work. Though this position is based in the Charleston area, it will be a virtual role until the Core Team decides to resume in-person operations. 

We believe that our team should reflect the communities in which we work. Our team strongly encourages women, transgender folks, gender nonconforming folks, people of color, working class people, and people who have been directly impacted by the criminal legal system to apply.  

Responsibilities 

Youth Action Alliance (YAA) 

  • Recruit young people to join the Youth Action Alliance

  • Facilitate and tailor YAA political education curriculum 

  • Facilitate three YAA cohorts 

  • Coordinate check-ins with youth leaders 

  • Support youth crisis response work  

  • Coordinate and attend annual YAA site visits 

  • Support coordination of & attend youth socials and collective meetings 

  • Create and review applications 

  • Create and review mid-year and end of year evaluations 

  • Update youth leader information in organizational database

  • Train and support Youth Action Fellow(s)

  • Support the personal and political development of the Youth Action Fellow(s) 

Basebuilding

  • Coordinate political education outreach efforts 

  • Coordinate and facilitate community workshops

  • Develop curriculum and facilitate workshops for schools, student groups, and community organizations  

  • Represent CYAP at community events 

Core Team (shared responsibilities)

  • Attend and co-facilitate bi-weekly core team meetings 

  • Attend and coordinate annual core team convening

  • Attend and coordinate annual core team retreat

  • Contribute to strategic planning and organizational development 

  • Communicate with board members 

  • Participate in quarterly board meetings

  • Attend annual board convening

  • Support with future hiring and training of new core team members

  • Assist with communications and social media strategy

  • Travel to select conferences, trainings, convenings, and site visits

  • Participate in Reflection, Assessment, and Review (RAR) Process 

  • Develop and strengthen alliances with (potential) partner organizations 

  • Engage in continued self-reflection and political development 

  • Build caring, compassionate, authentic, supportive, and anti-oppressive relationships with young people 

  • Help to establish CYAP as a political home for young people 

  • Support the social and emotional needs of young people 

  • Communicate openly about any questions, conflicts, and concerns

  • Address and work through conflict and tension 

  • Support with communication and transportation logistics 

  • Support with set up and clean up at each meeting and event

  • Document youth initiatives, partnerships, and fundraisers via social media 

Helpful Skills & Experience  

  • Strong verbal and written communication skills

  • Proficiency in Google drive, docs, and other applications

  • Ability to work independently and collectively

  • (Virtual) Facilitation and curriculum development

  • Political education and skill sharing

  • Base-building and community outreach

  • Team management

  • Event planning 

  • Communications

  • Conflict mediation and deescalation

  • Experience working with criminalized youth, particularly youth of color, queer and trans youth, and poor and working class youth

Helpful Political Understandings

  • Popular education

  • Prison abolition, restorative justice, transformative justice

  • Reproductive health, reproductive justice

  • Feminism / womanism, anti-racism

  • Identity, intersectionality, positionality

  • Respectability and disposability politics

  • Impact of neoliberalism, capitalism, colonization, imperialism, militarism, and other forms of state violence on various communities

  • South Carolina’s political landscape 

  • Legacy of violence and resistance in the Southeastern United States

Compensation 

  • The Political Education Organizer position will be salaried at $38,000/year with a monthly health care and cell phone stipend. The position will become eligible for a raise after their first full year of working on the core team.

Timeline 

  • (Extended!) Application deadline: Monday, September 7th - 11:59 PM EST

  • Ideal start date: Monday, November 2nd  

Application Details 

  • To apply, please send a resume and responses to the four prompts below to info@scyouthaction.org with the subject line: Political Education Organizer Application + Your Name. 

    • What specific skills or experiences will you bring to the Political Education Organizer position?

    • How have you developed and committed to your work as a facilitator? 

    • Share a story that speaks to your commitment to your own political development. 

    • Submit an outline for a virtual workshop on any topic related to either reproductive justice or transformative justice for young people ages 14-21.

Carolina Youth Action Project